Hafed promotes contract farming

Chandigarh, Feb 23 (UNI) The Haryana Cooperative Supply and Marketing Federation (Hafed) has initiated contract farming in association with the Haryana Seeds Development Corporation (HSDC) in Karnal, Kaithal and Kurukshetra districts in kharif-2006.

As many as 129 farmers were involved in the experiment over 795.5 acres in these districts.

A Hafed spokesman said this concept of contract farming had been adopted with a view to preserve the genetic purity of basmati paddy varieties HBC-19 and CSR 30 and provide remunerative prices to farmers by procuring and marketing their produce under its own brand name.

He said drawing strength from the pro-farmer policies of Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda, and encouraged by the response of the growers of wheat and paddy, Hafed not only planned to bring moong dal and black gram under the ambit of contract farming but had also set a target of 2,000 acres for wheat and paddy in 2007 against 1, 416.5 acres in 2006.

This has made Hafed a multilateral agency donning the mantle of co-producer, procurer, distributor and facilitator, a household name in rural Haryana, he added.

The spokesman said the Hafed guaranteed the growers a premium of 10 per cent over and above the model price. About 700 quintals of paddy of contract farmers had so far been purchased by Hafed at Rs 1950 per quintal against the market price of about Rs 1850.

UNI